Albrecht’s suicide prevention bill a good start on hidden issue

Guelph Mercury

We will never know how many Canadian lives will be saved, how much emotional pain will be prevented, by the work of our local MP Harold Albrecht.

This week, the final votes were held and royal assent given to the private member’s bill sponsored by the Kitchener-Conestoga MP. It directs the government to create better ways to prevent suicide across the country, including more sharing of information and the defining of best practices in prevention. The bill quietly became law on Friday after Albrecht and his staff worked on it for 18 months.

Every political party supported it, except for three members of the Bloc Québécois. They were opposed because of disagreement over jurisdiction, said Albrecht’s assistant, David Drewe.

It’s estimated that almost every week, one person kills himself or herself in Waterloo Region. Across Canada, 4,000 people die by suicide each year. And for each suicide, there were 100 attempts, five hospitalizations and 22 emergency room visits.

Suicide is one of the leading causes of premature death. But it lives in the shadows. Except for widely publicized cases like bullied British Columbia teen Amanda Todd, you don’t hear much about these deaths. We tend to keep them quiet and think of them as a private matter. In the newspaper obituaries, families almost never say “death by suicide.” Instead, there is a euphemism, like “died suddenly.” Or there is no cause of death listed at all.

Albrecht wants a cultural change. He wants suicide to be talked about more openly and acknowledged as a public health issue. His new law recognizes that the federal government is uniquely placed to share information and co-ordinate between experts, health providers, and community prevention groups across the country.

“We know that suicide is most often preventable … by knowledge and by care and compassion,” Albrecht said earlier this week to the Senate hearing. “However, we do a poor job of sharing the knowledge accumulated regarding suicide prevention.”

How wonderful it would be if we could do better. If a psychologist in Calgary figures out an effective treatment for people at risk, then why not let every hospital and mental health professional in the country know about this discovery?

There’s some powerful work already being done that should be shared across Canada. Here’s just one example: Scott Chisholm, a Thunder Bay man, is creating a photo gallery of survivors who have lived through the pain, the grief and sometimes the guilt of the suicide of a loved one. He believes this will create a “path of healing.”

As a boy of 17, Chisholm had to face his own father’s suicide. “I often felt that I was left dealing with my pain and recovery in solitude, social stigma and loneliness,” he said.

“I passionately believe that by stepping out of the dark and showing that I am a survivor of suicide, I will help those who are faced with a similar life-changing experience today,” Chisholm said.

Among his subjects is Olympic champion swimmer Alex Baumann, whose older brother, Roman, died after jumping over Niagara Falls. Find out more about this project by going to leftbehindbysuicide.org.

Albrecht’s plan will face huge challenges: Canada is a vast and diverse country. It’s full of different kinds of people who each have their own particular struggle with mental health and suicide. Veterans and First Nations people are particularly vulnerable. For Canada’s young people, age 10 to 24, suicide is the second-highest cause of death. In regions where there are high levels of Inuit, suicide rates soar to 11 times the rate of the rest of Canada.

It won’t be easy to make this national conversation happen. But it is the most decent thing in the world for us to try.